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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

2011 Resolutions - #1

Get to 145 lbs. and run the Chicago Half-Marathon in September.

After running the marathon this year, I had all kinds of other, more demanding, physical goals for myself. Triathlons, ultras, lose even more weight, etc. Then, during my official “rest period” I found myself more seriously making things again, sewing, drawing, painting. Then I got hurt, and tried to figure out how I could work out at all. And then with the holidays I got super busy at work during the daylight and twilight hours, and super busy at home during the dark hours. And then somehow it was the end of the year and I had not worked out in five weeks… and had not missed it as much as I thought I would have… and had done a lot of thinking in the meantime about what my goals are for myself and what our goals are as a family. And I came to the conclusion that I don’t want to give the time right now for those demanding physical goals, and I probably won’t want to spend the time on them for a few years.

Well, that’s a shift, I know, and it kind of left me uneasy for a bit, wondering about questions of identity, etc., etc. (this is the sort of stuff that I don’t mind reading about but bores me silly to think about writing down).

But I do miss running, and I do want to lose more weight (dagnabbit, I want to at least be able to say I am no longer officially “overweight,” regardless of how arbitrary that damn BMI measure might be). And I know that I love both distance and speedwork, and that I need a race goal to keep me focused, and that I want to be able to maintain a certain level of running fitness so that when I do want to run another marathon (there are a couple in my sights) I don’t have to spend a lot of time just to get ready to start the training. I figure a half-marathon a year should take care of me.

As for the losing weight… well, just as I am out of condition with my running, I am somewhat out of condition with beautiful healthful eating. But I am moving back in that direction and there is nothing like eating with training in mind to make me eat well. We have joined our neighborhood gym so I’ll be able to switch in more focused cardio and weight-lifting for my swimming (I’ll miss the swim but not that pool and certainly not dragging my wet stuff around with me all day), which should also help with the pounds. And there is certainly nothing like being surrounded by wall-length mirrors to remind me of the extra weight I’m carrying!

Already my training plan for the week is somewhat derailed, as I left work unexpectedly today to get a sick Buddy and will be home with him tomorrow (and then heading in early and staying late on Friday to make up for it). A shining example of why I scaled back my physical goals. A year ago I could be gone all day and he didn’t seem to even notice much --- now I’m out for an evening meeting and the next day it’s “No Mommy – Daddy!” when I come to get him in the morning. He needs me more now and that will be doubly true if we end up having another kid. Well, I went most of my adult life without being marathon-ready --- a few more years won’t hurt me.